sauce

Raise your hand if you recently had surgery and ate all of the things while not moving for nearly a month!!!

Jay is raising his hand right now. We’ve had the weirdest few months – we were all three sick in increments so basically someone in the house was sick for over a month, then Jay traveled for work, then had surgery, and in that time frame we decided that CARBS AND DAIRY GOOD and KALE BAD. Which honestly emotionally was exactly what we needed, but still. Can’t do that forever, sad aging bodies don’t work well that way. Now, let me be super clear that I think Jay looks no different and he’s maintained a super duper great outlook on health and food in 2018 so far, BUT, I definitely get that sometimes after a slump it feels great to eat especially lighter or healthier meals. For us, that means less/no red meat, fewer carbs, and smaller portions. We aren’t cutting out anything exactly, but more fish + veggies + vegetarian options feels great to us right now. With cheese on top.

So to continue our Whole30-is-over-but-white-carbs-aren’t-great way of eating, spaghetti squash is back in the house with a fun vengeance, because we both love it. The idea for this fresh sauce came from Pinch of Yum, which I read all the time and adore, and serving it over spaghetti squash seemed like a no-brainer. The way to make this delicious is a teeny bit of butter in the sauce, parm on top, and LIBERAL use of salt and pepper. Unsalted anything isn’t great, but an unsalted healthy-on-purpose meal is just the most sad. Salt for president!

This really brings new life to the dumb-as-shit phrase DILLY DILLY, which of course Beck has learned to say with great fanfare.

Because it’s a dilly ranch, get it?

Unlike some people who love eating a wide variety of foods, I adore ranch. BUT, it has to be good. Hidden Valley is not good. Homemade bar ranch from a packet is good. Those packets are also Hidden Valley, so riddle me that. I think it’s something about the combo of less preservatives, less or no mayo, that makes “homemade” ranch so wonderful. I’ve seen a ton of no-packet ranch ideas on the internet, and a lot of them call with powdered milk or something similar to achieve a more classic flavor. I don’t love having ingredients around that only can be used for one or two things, though, so I don’t use anything but spices and sour cream in my ranch.

So we’ll kick off Super Bowl week with this! Dip that is perfect for a game-viewing extravaganza but also wonderful to have on hand at all times for the “I should eat a veggie” moments that sometimes happen on Mondays. There will be tons more food for the weekend happening here all week and on Instagram, so take a look there if you haven’t already!

Ok so. This is incredibly simple but very life-changing, probably. I’m a really huge fan of sauces and condiments in general. Having them around makes it really simple to amp up any regular dinner. Grilled chicken and roasted veggies becomes special with a balsamic drizzle and some fresh herbs. Seared salmon and rice is amplified with pesto, that kind of thing. So this! This is a very garlicky, vegan green sauce with lime, lemongrass, and basil at the base. I hesitate to call it Thai, necessarily, but it goes GREAT with all types of far-east flavors, so there’s that.

Hence, a basil green sauce instead of a Thai green sauce. Whatever it is, though, you definitely need to make a batch and drizzle it all over your LIFE for the next week or so.

I’ve written about this before, but one of my favorite things to have on hand in my fridge is marinara sauce. We’re lucky to have a few great fresh pasta makers in our little city, so we almost always have frozen pasta in fun flavors that boil in 3 minutes. If I already have marinara in the fridge or freezer dinner becomes even easier, but still feels like I’ve made it myself because…I kind of did.

No knock at all on jarred pasta sauces, but it’s so simple to make your own (and cheaper! and less chemicals!) that I prefer to make big batches of it, keep some in the fridge and some in the freezer, and call it a day. I did this when I was pregnant and it was so nice to have on hand for quick pasta. I toss it with shredded chicken or cooked ground beef to serve over pasta, bake it with some cooked pasta and dollops of ricotta and shredded mozzarella for a quick ziti, or throw it into lasagna for a weekend meal.

I feel like this is a new trendy thing in the world, do you? Jams or jellies that are sweet but savory and go with savory stuff. I’m talking tomato jam on burgers, bacon jam (?) over pimento cheese, that kind of thing. Is it a southern thing? a soon-to-be-passe thing? I don’t know. What I do know, however, is that it is all of a sudden feeling like summer is ending very quickly. Jay and I were walking to lunch yesterday (there’s a taco place that’s mayyyyybe 10 minutes on foot from our house and it’s become our new Sunday outing) and talking about how the weather feels all of a sudden very different. I say that it feels like summer has broken, kind of like a fever. The humidity goes away, the temperature has dropped 5-10 degrees, and the sun is warm but not so piercing.

It’s also the time of year where produce that was amazing 3 weeks ago is somewhat lackluster, like the sad dry tomato plants in our yard that are trying so hard to still produce fruit but it’s just not great anymore. The red tomatoes we get are still delicious, but they seem to not ripen as quickly, or if they do they’ll rot faster when we bring them inside.

Enter, green tomato jam. I love fried green tomatoes as much as the next southerner, but they’re unhealthy and a pain to make at home. Green tomato jam, on the other hand, is easy, just takes a little bit of patience, and lasts and lasts in the fridge. You can make a double or triple batch and can some, but it lasts so well in the fridge that I prefer small batches here and there throughout the coming weeks and months. I’m seeing lots of green tomatoes at grocery stores and our farmer’s market, so snatch them up and make some jam asap. This version is sweet, sticky, spicy, and slightly savory from a little bit of onion. I’ve enjoyed it most with crackers and stinky or really sharp cheeses, the sweetness pairs perfectly with blue cheese especially.